KFF finds family health insurance premiums average $28,000

Survey finds 43% of insured workers skipped care due to cost

Two surveys published Thursday show rising health-care costs that are also affecting workers with solid employer benefits.

The annual KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey polled nearly 2,000 employers and was published Thursday by KFF, a nonpartisan health research organization. It found that the average annual premium for a family of four now stands at $28,000, roughly the cost of a new car. Workers pay about $7,000 of that total on average, with employers covering the remainder.

“The average health insurance premium for a family of four is now $28,000, which is just a ton of money,” said Matthew Rae, associate director for the Health Care Marketplace Program at KFF. “It’s basically the cost of a new car every year just to keep a family of four insured.”

A 5% increase in family premiums continues a period of comparatively modest growth, roughly on par with worker wages and inflation, Rae said. But the share of premiums paid by workers rose 9% over the past year.

“A 5% increase on a big number is still a lot of money,” Rae said. “If this is the beginning of a shift of costs onto workers, that would be a big deal in terms of affordability.”

“We are asking people to chip in a lot of money,” Rae added. “Many people are committing a big chunk of their income to health insurance.”

For workers like Joseph Babbitt of Springfield, Mo., even free premiums are not enough to insulate them from rising health-care costs. Babbitt, 60, works as a senior financial controller for West Plains Veterinary Supply, which employs about 50 people and distributes pet food, toys and veterinary supplies across the region.

Unlike most Americans, Babbitt has exceptionally generous job benefits. His employer offers several different plan options and covers most or all of the monthly premium cost. “Our owners are very nice — they give all of our employees health care and they pay for it,” Babbitt said.

Even without monthly premiums, Babbitt said, health-care costs remain widely discussed. “Everybody talks about health care and how much it’s costing them,” he said. He explained that a high deductible can be brutal — the amount a patient must pay out of pocket before insurance starts paying for doctors’ visits and procedures. Babbitt’s deductible now stands at $5,000.

“Back in the ’90s, our deductibles were $250 [or] $500 — now they’re $5,000,” Babbitt said. “That seems like a lot.”

About 157 million Americans receive health insurance through their jobs, according to KFF. Even among that broadly insured group, financial strain from medical costs remains widespread, according to a biennial Commonwealth Fund report, “The State of Health Insurance Coverage in 2026,” also published Thursday. The Commonwealth Fund is a nonprofit foundation that supports independent research.

“About 43% of them said that they didn’t get health care because of cost over the past year, and about 31% reported that they had medical debt,” said Sara Collins, lead author of the Commonwealth Fund report.

The overall U.S. uninsured rate has risen over the past two years, Collins said, a change she called significant but not surprising. She attributed it to federal policy decisions including the expiration of enhanced ACA subsidies and people losing Medicaid after the pandemic emergency ended. Federal data show millions of people have lost coverage from either Medicaid or the ACA marketplaces.

The trend is expected to continue. When work requirements for Medicaid take effect next year, millions more people are projected to lose Medicaid.

“There is a, I think, a strong feeling across the country that something probably does need to be done to the situation that people are facing in their health and health insurance — both on the cost side and then also on these coverage losses,” Collins said.

Public attitudes reflect that concern. The Commonwealth Fund survey found that nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that all Americans have health coverage. That figure included 93% of Democrats, 76% of independents, and 45% of Republicans.

Separately, the Justice Department has begun notifying counties where it intends to monitor elections.

Babbitt, the Missouri financial controller, framed the issue in starker terms. “We are the only country on our planet that forces people into bankruptcy because they get sick,” he said.

The new KFF and Commonwealth Fund figures extend a pattern that has been visible since enhanced federal ACA subsidies lapsed at the end of 2025. MSI previously reported that ACA enrollment fell by 5 million people as premiums roughly doubled, and that nearly 1 in 4 U.S. workers with employer-sponsored insurance say they have stayed in jobs they would otherwise leave to keep their coverage. The October surveys show that rising costs now reach even those with job-based insurance.